Canção do Siren
by GhostfaceScylla
Summary: TWO SHOT Just a little update for all those interested! pairings announced later (if there is a later)... here's the character list, all included eventually: KKMEGSAOSMISYAHSOUTSUSHIYUMAND OTHERS
1. Siren Song

Hey all! Lara-Chan's muses are working overtime *grins sheepishly*. I know, I have too many stories going on as it is, but this one just popped into my head! And since the next chapter of _Nineteen__ is still with my beta….. well, here ya go. Depending on reviews, I'll continue or just stop it here. You all just tell me what you think! Here's the story summary:_

            It is 1544 and Kenshin Himura, the Portuguese seafarer, is captain of a ship sailing for Japan, only the second excursion EVER into Japan by foreigners. A young woman who has been deemed "a menace" to the government goes with him as a present for the emperor. Her name is Kamiya Kaoru, and why is she a menace? Because she is the leader of the movement for equality rights in Portugal! Uh-oh, craziness ensues… That is… it _will _ensue if you review. 

By the way, the title means "siren song" hehe. 

On with the story! 

canção do siren

            The Mediterranean ebbs and flows as it has for centuries. It does not change its course to the pacific in the wake of storm or when the skies are quiet. It has bore silent, vigilant witness to horrible happenings, enough blood to turn its waters red. It also has rejoiced as people baptize newborn babes in its clear, fresh waters. Like motherly arms encircling all of Italy, France and Spain, it keeps these places safe from drifting out toward unknown destinations.

            However, it leaves Portugal out in the torrents, forcing it to brave the angry Atlantic alone. But no matter how dangerous the Atlantic might be, some men chose to defy her. 

Himura Kenshin was one such man. 

_City of __Lagos__, southern tip of __Portugal__, _April 12, 1544____

            The salty sea wind rustled his red hair. A slender hand pushed some stray hairs back behind his ears revealing a cross shaped scar. He held a clipboard between his calloused hands and was making hurried marks across the paper as white sails began to unfurl. A wooden ship bobbed in the water behind him and sailors scurried from the dock to the ship deck carrying heavy boxes and barrels. 

            "Silks?" Himura Kenshin's eyes roamed the cargo on the dock. "And where is the wine?"

            "We've already loaded most of it, sir." A sailor gave a military salute to Kenshin. He waved him off with the back of his hand.

            "Very well, jewels?" He turned his back, attending to other matters. He knew he didn't have much time. The ship was supposed to leave within the hour and everything had to be perfect, although he didn't know exactly what the emperor of Japan was going to do with all of this stuff. King Phillip of Portugal had made an unnecessarily long list in his opinion. He didn't have the heart to tell him that Emperor Go-Nara wouldn't care a thing about any of the material possessions. He read down through the excess.

            _Twenty-one royal envoys._ 'Check'.  Kenshin glanced over his shoulder, 'They're around here somewhere.'

            _A treasure chest filled with the finest jewels in the land. 'Being loaded.'_

            _Large cases of fine French wine._ 'Check.' He doubted the emperor had ever tasted alcoholics and snickered at the thought of a drunken royal.

            _Gold coins. 'Check.'_

            _Missionaries_. Kenshin grimaced. They were there, he just wished they weren't. It was extremely unlucky to take people of the cloth on a long voyage. They could perform funeral rites and made the sea perceive that you didn't trust her. Women too made the sea angry, since they competed with her beauty.

            _Ladies dresses for the Empress of __Japan__. 'Check.'_

            _Ladies Perfume for the Empress._'Check.'

            _Woman for the Emperor of __Japan_,  Miss___ Kamiya Kaoru. To be kept under lock and key until destination reached. A sigh escaped Kenshin's lips. He knew the type of girl she would be, he had seen her kind so many times before on different excursions around the globe. The Portuguese royals always insisted taking a gift of a woman to the royalty of every country Kenshin visited. Something about representing the fine Portuguese race, Kenshin really didn't understand. _

            "Where is the girl, this Kamiya Kaoru?" he shouted above the hubbub. His mind began to paint a picture of what she might look like. 'She will be poor, that's for sure, they always are. She's probably spent half her life in prison for some minor offense. Of course she will be beautiful, she would not be chosen if she wasn't. She will be afraid and delicate, young, scared of the water and the ocean storm. Quiet, uneducated, illiterate most likely…"

           "Here she is, chief." Kenshin turned around to see a rather plump sailor pulling a woman by the arm towards the ship.

            "Get your lascivious paws _off_ of me you despicable hell hound! Ugh!" THUMP.

            "Uhh, oro?" The last noise had been the sound of the plump sailor being thrown upon the deck. He had been flung over the girls shoulder and landed squarely on his rear, stunned and blinking. The young woman dusted her hands off and placed them on her hips. She glared at Kenshin with a mix of hate and disgust. 

            She was very strikingly beautiful, he had guessed that right. She was an old time beautiful, as if she could spring out of a novel. Kenshin found himself thinking how much she resembled his long deceased mother when she had been young. The girls eyes shone bluer than the Atlantic and her eyelashes were longer than any Kenshin had ever seen. Ebony hair caressed her shoulders, blowing in the calm breeze.

            She began to walk towards him defiantly. None of the other sailors made a move to stop her. He had been wrong about her wealth, she wore a long, high collar, blue dress accented in black ribbon. A large cameo brooch hung from her neck and a golden band rested around her left ring finger. She was well to do, there was no denying her status. And by the looks of the ring, she had been married before. 

            Delicate, she was not. Not the kind of delicate like one finds in a lily anyway. She resembled a tornado, a dangerous beauty, rushing up to him and matching her angered gaze with his passive purple eyes. 

            "Are you the captain of this rickety barrel?" She pointed an index finger towards the King's ship.

            "Ahrem…yes, m'lady,Captain Himura at your service."

            Kaoru smiled and looked pleased with herself. She reeled her head back as if she was going to laugh and then produced a huge spitwad, landing it clearly on Kenshin's polished black shoes.

            "Oro?"

            A cheer went up from a crowd on the docks. Kenshin hadn't noticed it before, but a large crowd of women had assimilated on the docks.

            " Your lady? _Your_ Lady!?_ I'm sorry, sir, I didn't realize that I was talking to Almighty God!" She screamed. "One year in a government prison and suddenly every man with half a centil is trying to lead me around and own me! You and your government officials thought keeping me in a concrete box would stop the equality revolution. NEVER! You can send me to hell if you like, but that won't stop change! " The ladies on the dock cheered again, waving their shawls in the air. They murmured her name in a mix of deep respect and excitement. She turned to face them, stretching out her arms towards them. _

            "Uh, Miss Kamiya, I nev….." She ignored him.

            "Good women of the New Republic! I leave you now to embark on a monumental journey. The government says I am dangerous, and I say if equality is dangerous, then count me dangerous as well!"

            The crowd cheered again. More and more supporters filtered in.

            "But my dear friends, just because I have been exiled does not mean that our cause should die! Keep fighting against the injustices, and I shall fight to the death until I can return to you, my friends, and to the great country of Portugal!"

            More cheering.

            "I walk toward my exile with open arms and a free spirit, forever proud to be a WOMAN!" And with that, she turned on her heels, marching defiantly up the ramp towards the main deck. Kenshin 

sighed and set his clipboard down, trailing after her. 

            "This is going to be a long two months…" he sighed as he tried to catch up with the defiant blue dress in front of him. 

A/N: I realize that Kamiya Kaoru and Himura Kenshin aren't exactly Portuguese names, but I am keeping them, obviously. Plus, I am keeping the traditional order of last name first name for the Japanese names, but the truly Portuguese names (i.e. the characters that I make up) will be kept in western form, first name last name.

Well, there ya go! Flames and reviews are both welcome, so review away… otherwise, this will just turn into a one-shot! Till next time, toodles!

~Lara-Chan 


	2. Goodbye Portugal, Goodbye Me

Hello all! I decided to update this thing for the helluvit. I don't know why, just did. Reviews and flames alike are appreciated!

Chapter 2

Goodbye Portugal, Goodbye Me

            "Ahem, Miss Kamiya? Would you like me to escort you to your ce-"

            "No."

            Kamiya Kaoru stormed a few feet ahead of Captain Himura looking as if for all the world she knew exactly where she was headed. She stopped in the dead center of the deck. "Good God, man, you could at least point me in the right direction!" Kenshin resisted the temptation to roll his eyes and pointed his index finger towards a door in the main bulkhead just behind the mast. She flung it open and disappeared down a row of stairs calling over her shoulder, "My trunk is still on deck. Someone better attend to it!".

            "Some woman." Said a voice behind Kenshin. "She's more like a she-beast. I know if _I_ was the Emperor of Japan, I'd kill the King of Portugal for shipping me that." First mate Segara Sanosuke placed his rough hands on his hips and squinted in the harsh sunlight. He had been loading miscellaneous cargo into the hold below and his white jacket had taken on a rather brown and dusty tone.

            "Yes, Sano…but one wonders exactly what has made her the way she is. What has she faced, I wonder, to make her hate men so? And how has she ended up in exile, de gozaru yo?"

            "Kenshin, sometimes, you're just too damn polite." Sanosuke spit on the newly waxed deck. "She's ended up in exile because she's a royal pain. Well, there goes the fun in this trip, my fellow wanderer. There goes drinking on the coast of Africa. There goes the exotic women and the fun we _usually have. We're gonna be babysitting that wench all the way to Japan."_

            "You don't think she'll actually try to escape, do you? Where is she going to go?" Kenshin surveyed the ocean on three sides.

            "I hope you're not talking about me, Ken-san!" A fluttery voice rang out from the other side of the ship. Sano chuckled at the sight of the fox's lilting walk as she approached the two men.

            "No, Megumi-Dono, for once you aren't the only woman on this trip." Takani Megumi, resident cook of the King's Royal Armada, gave a pretty little smile towards Captain Himura. She turned towards Sano and scowled in his general direction.

            "Don't know what you're talkin' about cap'n. Only see one lady here and her name is Kamiya Kuri."  

            "Kaoru." Kenshin chimed.

            "Whatever." Sano absentmindedly stared at the furling sails.

            "Oh-ho-ho, Sanosuke, you will _never_ change, will you? One of these days, you are going to go just a _bit too far and I'm going to do something drastic…" It wasn't a very good comeback but it was all she could think of at the time. Good thing no one noticed too much because all of their trains of thoughts were abruptly interrupted by what sounded like a girl…but no one could be sure it was really a girl, no one could be entirely sure that it was human since it sounded more along the lines of a banshee fresh out of hell and very, very hungry._

            KYAA!  
            It came from below the deck. It came from the mouth of one very angry piece of human cargo.

            With god-like speed, Kenshin flew down the stairs into the lower holds of the ship. In the dim light, he could just make out a sailor trying to push a woman through an iron grated cell built in to the bottom of the ship. She had her hands on the two iron bars that made up the door frame and was steadying herself against his push.

            "Get _in there!" Roared the angry sailor. _

            Kaoru merely tossed her head in defiance. Finally, at the sight of his captain, the sailor gave up and slumped against the side wall sulkily. Kaoru turned towards Kenshin.

            "I've had worse," she pointed towards the cell, bare except for a table, half of a candle, a chair, a rickety old bed, and a large trunk with Kamiya Kaoru printed in big letters. A small, barred window gave access to the outside world. "Prison was much worse, and I really am not trying to be picky…"

            "But?" Kenshin really didn't see a problem then.

            "It's the principle of the thing! You can't go around pushing women through door-cases all of the time, it's just not right. My equality standards go against it." Kaoru raised her head towards the ceiling. Sano let out a low growl.

            Something clicked inside Kenshin's head as she said the last part of her sentence. 'Kamiya Kaoru… _the_ Kamiya Kaoru, Duchess of Avario tuned women's rights activist. Arrested on charges of conspiring to overthrow the government.' Himura Kenshin had an anarchist aboard his ship. A flaming feminist anarchist at that. He grimaced at the sailor, giving him a look like, 'why are you making _me _do this?' and then turned towards Kaoru.

            "Miss Kamiya, would you please enter your cell so that this man may lock you in and guard you?"

            "Well, I'm not sure exactly where you think I'm going to go, but….since you asked so nicely…" She stepped lightly into the cell, closing the door behind her and allowing the guard to lock it. Kenshin was the only one to notice the slight smile on her face, it made him want to laugh, the way she could manipulate the world to work around her. She opened up her trunk and took out a notebook and writing utensils, beginning to scribble furiously and acting as if the rest of the crew had entirely vanished. Sano opened his mouth to say something about her pig-headed, womanish ways but was interrupted.

            "Captain Himura!" Someone called down from below. "Everything is ready! We need permission to set sail!" Kenshin the Wanderer jumped to attention, racing up the stairs towards the main deck with Sano and Megumi on his heels. Kaoru's "guard" had already fallen asleep in his chair by the time the three of them had stepped back into the sunlight.

            Suddenly, Kaoru heard a rustle as a gust of wind filled the sails. The boat began to creak and turn, its nose pointing out to sea. With a burst of energy, it began to move across the tumultuous ocean, waves breaking against it's mighty boughs. 

            Kaoru stood up from the desk and quietly walked over to the small window, placing her hands delicately upon the bars. A little voice escaped her throat coming out in a small whisper, "Oh, my love…just because I cannot see you doesn't mean you're not here, right? You wouldn't leave me, would you?" She turned the gold band on her left hand around and around her ring finger.

            A lonely tear escaped her eye as she watched the only home she had ever known sink slowly behind the blue horizon. 

Well, kids, reviews are welcome! Otherwise, goodbye, story! The proverbial buck stops here w/o reviews, so…. toodles until next time, if there is one :p


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